🔗 Share this article

For months, intimidating phone calls persisted. Initially, reportedly from an ex-law enforcement official and a former defense officer, later from the authorities. In the end, one resident claims he was summoned to the local precinct and told clearly: stop speaking out or face serious consequences.

The leather artisan is among those resisting a high-value project where Dharavi – a massive informal community with rich history – is scheduled to be razed and redeveloped by a corporate giant.

"The culture of the slum is like nowhere else in the world," says the protester. "But the plan aims to destroy our social fabric and silence our voices."

Opposing Environments

The dank gullies of the slum sit in stark contrast to the towering buildings and Bollywood penthouses that loom over the neighborhood. Dwellings are built haphazardly and often without proper sanitation, unregulated industries emit toxic smoke and the atmosphere is saturated with the unpleasant stench of open sewers.

To some, the prospect of a renewed Dharavi into a modern district of high-end towers, well-maintained green spaces, contemporary malls and apartments with two toilets is a hopeful vision achieved.

"There's no adequate medical facilities, roads or water management and there's nowhere for youth to recreate," states a tea vendor, fifty-six, who relocated from his home state in the early eighties. "The single option is to demolish everything and construct proper housing."

Local Protest

However, some, such as the leather artisan, are fighting against the plan.

All recognize that the slum, consistently overlooked as an illegal encroachment, is urgently needing economic input and modernization. However they worry that this initiative – lacking public consultation – might turn valuable urban land into a playground for the rich, forcing out the disadvantaged, immigrant populations who have lived there since the late 1800s.

These were these shunned, displaced people who built up the vacant wetlands into an extensively researched phenomenon of self-reliance and economic productivity, whose output is estimated at between a significant amount and two million dollars per year, making it among the globe's biggest informal economies.

Displacement Concerns

Out of about 1 million inhabitants living in the packed 2.2 square kilometer neighborhood, fewer than half will be able for new homes in the project, which is expected to take seven years to finish. The remainder will be moved to wastelands and salt plains on the far outskirts of the city, threatening to divide a long-established social network. A portion will not get residences at all.

Those allowed to remain in the neighborhood will be allocated flats in multi-story structures, a substantial change from the organic, communal way of dwelling and laboring that has maintained the community for generations.

Commercial activities from clothing production to pottery and recycling are likely to shrink in number and be transferred to a specific "industrial sector" far from people's residences.

Livelihood Crisis

For residents like the leather artisan, a workshop owner and third generation of his family to reside in this community, the plan presents a fundamental risk. His makeshift, three-floor facility creates garments – sharp blazers, premium outerwear, fashionable garments – sold in high-end shops in upscale neighborhoods and abroad.

His family resides in the rooms underneath and employees and garment workers – laborers from north India – reside there, permitting him to manage costs. Away from Dharavi's enclave, accommodation prices are often 10 times as high for minimal space.

Threats and Warning

At the government offices in the vicinity, an illustrated mock-up of the Dharavi project illustrates an alternative vision for the future. Well-groomed people move around on two-wheelers and eco-friendly transport, purchasing western-style baguettes and croissants and having coffee on a terrace adjacent to a coffee shop and Ice-Cream. This represents a stark contrast from the affordable idli sambar first meal and budget beverage that sustains local residents.

"This isn't progress for residents," explains the artisan. "It represents an enormous real estate deal that will make it unaffordable for us to survive."

Furthermore, there's skepticism of the corporate group. Run by a powerful tycoon – among the country's wealthiest and an associate of the government head – the conglomerate has been subject to claims of preferential treatment and questionable practices, which it disputes.

While the state government describes it as a partnership, the developer paid $950m for its majority share. A lawsuit claiming that the redevelopment was questionably assigned to the corporation is under review in the top court.

Sustained Harassment

After they started to publicly resist the development, protesters and community members assert they have been experienced ongoing efforts of harassment and intimidation – comprising messages, explicit warnings and suggestions that speaking against the project was comparable with opposing national interests – by figures they allege are associated with the developer.

Among those alleged to have delivering warnings is {a retired police officer|a former law enforcement official|an ex-c